DHS student's film earns a trip to Carnegie Hall: Junior named National Scholastic silver medal winner

By Andrea Bulfinch

abulfinch@fosters.com

Saturday, March 23, 2013

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John Huff/Staff photographer
Dover High School junior Emma Porter, 17, won a National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards silver medal for her stop-motion animated short film titled “Sailing Home.”

DOVER — Emma Porter spent hours upon hours painstakingly placing, moving and rearranging tiny pieces of paper she had painted with watercolors to create what turned out to be an award-winning stop-motion film recognized by the National Scholastic Art & Writing program.

Porter earned a National Scholastic silver medal award for art for her film, “Sailing Home,” a piece inspired by the “freeing aspect of finding yourself,” she said.

A character sails along in a small boat to start the film, is lifted through the air via balloon and turns into a blue feathered bird, a symbol of freedom, Porter explained, at the conclusion of the piece.

The process was a labor of love, taking multiple pictures in succession as she moved each tiny piece of colored paper that formed the images from one frame into the next.

She had intended to create the film as a sort of music video for her film and animation class at Dover High School, but changed things along the way once she learned the music she was considering was copyrighted.

“I just did it for fun,” she said.

Her film was entered into the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards contest by her teacher, Francine Kontos.

Kontos, who was incredibly proud of Porter and her creativity even before the award, said DHS art students are entered into the Scholastics awards on the state level each year but that Porter was one of only four who had been recognized at the national level.

“It's very exciting,” Kontos said.

For Porter, the process is really enjoyable and a skill she said she'll pursue after high school.

“I really love stop animation,” she said, naming the creators of the animated movie Wallace and Gromit as some of the artists she finds most inspiring.

Though it was the editing process, cleaning up the stray pieces of paper from the onscreen version of her film, that took the longest amount of time, Porter said that's the part she really loves most of all.

“Seeing all the pictures come together is really amazing to me,” she said.

Kontos said Porter put in a lot of extra hours beyond those spent in class working on the project to make this film as great as it is.

And the junior, 17, didn't mind at all.

“It's a really long process, but it pays off,” Porter said.

Kontos also said she's excited to be able to see what Porter creates in her senior year.

The class has been held at the school for about seven years, Kontos said, and teaches students the beginning skills of editing.

She said she's proud of the students in the class, about 16 this year, and there are four seniors moving on to film school next year.

“It's a practical application of your art,” she said.

As for Porter, she'll attend the National Scholastic Art & Writing Awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City accompanied by Kontos on May 31.